Claude Clerselier

Tractatus de formatione fetus , 1672

Claude Clerselier (* 1614 in Paris ; † 1684 ibid) was a French philosopher who was the editor and translator of several works by René Descartes . He also propagated the Cartesian doctrine in Paris after Descartes' death and defended it against attacks.

Clerselier came from a family of lawyers and was also a lawyer himself.

After Marin Mersenne's death in 1648, he was Descartes' main contact in Paris. A large part of the written estate of Descartes (who died in 1650) he received in 1654 from Pierre Chanut , former ambassador to Sweden and then to The Hague, who arranged Descartes' estate in Stockholm. Chanut was also his brother-in-law. Clerselier edited Descartes' letters (1657, 1659, 1667, 3 volumes) and also his Traité de l´Homme (treatise on man, part of the later abandoned book project Le Monde by Descartes; together with Traite de la formation de fetus) 1664, in a new edition 1677 with Le Monde (Traité de la Lumière) and the principles 1681 (each in French translation). He had published a French edition of the meditations as early as 1647. He also translated the objections and refutations in the appendix to the meditations.

He tried to present Descartes' views as compatible with the Church. It is not least thanks to the dissemination by Clerselier that the Cartesian doctrine achieved a prominent position in France after Descartes' death. He was supported in this by his son-in-law and mathematics teacher Jacques Rohault , who wrote a physics textbook in the Cartesian spirit and was known for public lectures, and the philosopher Pierre-Sylvain Régis (1632-1707).

In 1658 there was an exchange of letters with Pierre de Fermat in continuation of the dispute between Fermat and Descartes in optics. He frequented the Montmor Academy .

He was a personal friend of Descartes, whom he had met and with whom he corresponded several times. His brother-in-law Pierre Chanut was the French ambassador to Sweden from 1645 and it was through him that Christina of Sweden got to know Descartes' teaching and invited him to Sweden.

Possibly he was the uncle of the comedian and playwright Denis Clerselier, known as Nanteau (born around 1650, he performed in Hanover, for example, in France in the 1670s).

Individual evidence

↑ In 1626 he married the sister Marguerite von Clerselier, another sister Catherine married Adrien Chanut
↑ At the same time, in 1662, Professor Florentius Schuyl from Leiden published a Latin edition. Clerselier claimed to have the original manuscript but, like Schuyl, had to recreate the illustrations as there were only a few rough sketches. They differ considerably and reveal different tendencies in Descartes' interpretation, Rebecca Wilkin Figuring the dead Descartes: Claude Cherselier's Homme de René Descartes , Representations, Volume 83, 2003, pp. 38-66
↑ Clerselier published Rohault's works posthumously

personal data
SURNAME	Clerselier, Claude
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH	1614
PLACE OF BIRTH	Paris
DATE OF DEATH	1684
Place of death	Paris

[1] In 1626 he married the sister Marguerite von Clerselier, another sister Catherine married Adrien Chanut

[2] At the same time, in 1662, Professor Florentius Schuyl from Leiden published a Latin edition. Clerselier claimed to have the original manuscript but, like Schuyl, had to recreate the illustrations as there were only a few rough sketches. They differ considerably and reveal different tendencies in Descartes' interpretation, Rebecca Wilkin Figuring the dead Descartes: Claude Cherselier's Homme de René Descartes , Representations, Volume 83, 2003, pp. 38-66

[3] Clerselier published Rohault's works posthumously